izigame.me

Control is one of those games where I am not entirely sure if I'm playing a game or an interactive movie kinda deal - and tbh I am not entirely sure how accurate that statement even is. The game does have gamey game parts, but most of it is enshrouded around an extremely convoluted story that swings from very intrusive to mildly annoying. It is however a definitely unique and fun experience.
The game starts by you taking control (lmao) of Jesse Faden who walks into The Federal Bureau of Control (a government building in charge of paranormal stuff) looking for her abducted brother Dylan Faden. Things immediately start getting weird and kinda spooky the more you delve into the ever shifting building. The game wastes no time building the world's lore by showering you with documents and collectibles that give you tidbits and insight into events that have happened in the Bureau. At first this felt like a fantastic experience for me because I had a phase where I loved to read tons of creepy pastas and analog horror kinda stuff - and these collectibles you find all over seem like they were ripped directly from the SCP Foundation reddit. Which is actually a good thing! The first couple of hours I read everything I found and chuckled with joy at the tongue and cheek humor in them. I do have to say that this style of worldbuilding and this flavor of writing is definitely an acquired taste. Especially since it gets tiresome very quickly just due to the titanic amount of things to read. At some point I just wanted to continue with the game.
Funnily enough, I'd say the gameplay is the game's high point. The game features your standard third person shooter mechanics but spices things up a bit with the Matrix: Path of Neo magic reality twisting powers kinda deal (I absolutely adored that game and anything similar to it gets an automatic 10/10). The game has tons of destructible environments and almost every object has weighty physics - that makes an extremely fun gameplay loop since one of your most OP powers is just hurling whatever random govt office supplies you see at Mach 10 speeds towards enemies. You also have a gun with infinite ammo, akin to the original Mass Effect's gun gameplay, that can be morphed into different kinds of guns. It's a serviceable mechanic that adds to the chaotic Neo gameplay.
The game's presentation is absolutely stunning and it's the first thing that drew my attention honestly. It's not every day that you get to play a AAA game that has functional raytracing and that is so well optimized. The stylization of the aesthetic elements is also gorgeous. The bureau has a very Black Mirror kinda cinematography, but it also has a Truman Show kinda vibe. It's like you're not fully in on whatever it is that is actually happening. It’s difficult to explain. Everything is twisted and wicked and dystopian, but the visuals are portrayed In a very stylistic and I suppose realistic kinda way. There are huge dramatic titles flashed on the screen whenever you discover a new section of the building and the environments are very detailed. There are tons of nooks and crannies you can pop your head into to find chests and weapon upgrade parts - and even the character animations feel very vibrant and lifelike. It felt very similar to the facial animations of L.A. Noir in that aspect.
Near the beginning of the game you meet probably the best support character in all gaming. Ahti is the janitor for the Bureau and although the game never explicitly reveals this, it's heavily implied (and showcased in many cutscenes) that he is a paranormal being. An all encompassing god-like entity that is friendly towards you and when you first meet him he acts as if you're there to be the janitors apprentice. His voice acting is top notch and his accent is very heavily Finnish. It's just very beautifully voice acted and it's a joy to listen to his weird quirky lines. One thing that I really loved about this game was the nonchalant attitude it has to explaining some of its mysteries. It's a super double edged sword because too many unexplained sections of the story can get really annoying and unnecessarily vague, but mysterious character origins or reasons of being are always a plus to be kept in the shadows. You never get to find out why Ahti can respond to Jesse's inner dialogues or why he insists on helping you in every turn. It's such a great adaptation of the omnipresent, all powerful being. He is even present in some hallucinations of the main character - and it's also implied that it's not a hallucination of Ahti that Jesse is having, but that it's actually Ahti existing in Jesse's mind as well.
As I've mentioned before the story for me is very convoluted and honestly not interesting enough for me to try and understand it fully. There is so much to unpack and so much going on at so many points in the game that it becomes overwhelming. There is an evil force that Jesse brands, "The Hiss" that corrupts objects of power or altered items which are every day objects that take on really strange characteristics. If you are familiar with the SCP lore and texts you will know exactly what the game is referring to - and part of Jesse's mission is to cleans these objects and get to the bottom of why the Hiss is there and how to stop it. There are many funny and quirky characters, many lines of strange and interesting dialogue and some really interesting thought provoking quests. It's just a shame that the information the game throws at you is so much that the task of trying to understand the story becomes really daunting and intimidating.
I know that the game exists in the Alan Wake universe (terrible tragedy since I have not played it) and there are even a couple of missions that reference Alan himself - which in my case it serves to muddy the waters of the story a lot more since I had no clue what was going on.
The balance in combat is pretty weird. I would catalogue the game as an easy one with exception of certain cheese tactics the game uses to fake difficulty. Most of the times I could take care of mobs with one or two different Neo moves o r a couple of shots from the shotgun or mini sniper, however sometimes certain bosses or even random mobs will one shot you or take off 95% of your health. To me it feels like a huge cheese because most times when this happened it was a super strangely telegraphed attack or it was a boss that had a puzzle intertwined in its battle. The boss battles in the game were generally cool and the actual visual design was pretty creative. I could see influences from space horror and Lovecraftian horror all around.
All in all this is a very difficult game to review because it does many interesting things, but It's not a great game. It feels more like a think piece you'd read in a niche reddit rather than a full fledged videogame (I might just be too low IQ to get the story). For that reason I'll give it a 3 jukebox tokens out of 5🪙🪙🪙
Shoutout to Fear of a Blank Planet by Porcupine Tree being played on the credits sequence
P.S. The DLC sucks ass